This I do know.

[joshcryer]

49. Economic populists can (and have) shoved social issues under the bus.

Almost everyone in Russia owns their own home and people get retirement at 50 something. Great stuff, right?

For me social issues are more important than economic issues, because social issues, at their very heart, are economic issues. But then we'd just get into a debate about which is which. Is Hobby Lobby ruling a social issue or economic issue? I think it's social but has economic consequences. Is Citizens United social or economic? I'd say social since it challenges the political fabric and it has wide ranging economic influences because it reenforces the status quo.

I'd rather have, as Sanders envisions, social democracy, where, yes, there is high tax and all that, most of the governmental emphasis is on social safety nets. The number of people needed to tax the rich by the government is trivial compared to the number of government workers needed to redistribute wealth to the people and provide safety nets. Absolutely trivial.